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This tutorial will demonstrate how to use the database adapter created in “Creating a SQLite Database in Android” to add and get data to and from the database to populate a ListView.
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There are several ways to send data across the internet to a server on the Android. I was recently working on a project and needed to send a JSON string to the server to add data to a database. Additionally in certain cases I wanted to receive data back from the server. The fastest and easiest way to do this was to use HTTP POST android library and capture the response from the server using a response handler. On the server side the response was simply generated by echoing a JSON string.
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This example will show you how to create a somewhat abstracted SQLite adapter on Android. This adapter can then be utilized by your program to do common database functions such as, querying and searching. I start by creating the class DBAdapter in my Android project and declaring the variable data necessary to create the database.

EDIT: The code has been modified since it originally assumed that a key option would be passed for every key. It will now work if no key options are passed. Additionally, “null” can also be passed to it if no key options are desired.

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After having been developing Android applications for 2 months I like to think that I have earned my Android badge. Last week at the SHPE conference I was given an android sticker at the Google booth, which now adorns my laptop.

Of course calling myself a developer makes me think of:

A week ago, for my mobile device programming class, I had to add text-to-speech and speech-to-text capabilities to a freely available Android program called Twitta. The features I added were very crudely superimposed on the Twitta interface, therefore this edit is by no means polished or intended for production usage.

There are 3 button “S”, “X”, and “R”. “S” starts the playback of all of the tweets which are currently displayed on the screen. Once the user scrolls down and new tweets appear on the screen the button can be pressed again and only the new ones will be read. “X” stops the playback of the messages. “R” prompts the user to speak their tweet. The google speech to text engine converts it to text and is displayed on the edit bar. If the message was wrong, pressing “R” again clears it and prompts for new speech. The message can also be edited with the keyboard. Below is a video of the application in action:

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It seems that despite being born in a Spanish speaking country, having gone to school solely in Spanish for 3 years, having Spoken only Spanish at home my entire life (21 years), and having taken Spanish classes throughout elementary, high school, and a semester in college, still doesn’t qualify me as knowing Spanish according to Tyler.

In his deeply distorted mind he believes that the verb “gustar” means to please. While I will admit that depending on the context it does mean that, he would apply that meaning to the translation of:
“A Hanly le gusta la muchacha.” thus making it “The girl pleases Hanly.” This translation completely redefines the meaning of the sentence giving it a sexual undertone and changing the structure from Hanly liking the girl (the correct meaning) to the girl pleasing Hanly (Tyler’s translation). Even applying it to the mother tongue of all romance languages Tyler’s translation would not make sense. For example this sentence in Latin would be “Hanly amat puellam.” Which would of course be translated into English as “Hanly likes(or loves) the girl.” The subject of the sentence being Hanly and the girl taking the singular accusative ending of -am because she is the direct object of Hanly’s love or liking. I’m sure he would argue that this is Latin and not Spanish, but the “A” in the beginning of the Spanish sentence preceding Hanly clearly makes Hanly the subject of the sentence stating that Hanly is the one doing the liking and not the girl. The girl of course being the direct object of Hanly’s liking.

My translation is of course wrong since I am completely inept and unable to speak my own country’s language. Does this mean that I communicate with my family through a telepathic link? Tyler of course, with his much higher standards, 4 years (a generous assumption considering he might have taken fewer years of it) of Spanish classes, and an inability to properly enunciate Spanish words, knows more Spanish than I could ever hope to learn. Debido a esto estoy avergonzado de haber nacido en Cuba y no saber hablar mi propio idioma. En verdad es un gran insulto no solamente a mi, pero a mi familia que venga este chiquito a decirme que yo no se hablar mi propio idioma. Que se valla para casa del carajo y me deje tranquilo este chiquito que se tira los peos mas altos que culo.

—Disculpenme por mi vulgaridad en esta explosión de mi temperamento sarcástico cubano.

A friend of mine sent me this video:

and it got me thinking about the reasons why my family came to the United States. (continue reading…)

An oldie but I do have to admit it is one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken. I love the colors as the sun sets behind the clouds. I took this on my trip to Cuba in 2005.

Yesterday, the Center for Public Integrity released the results of a survey comparing their legislative financial disclosure requirements. It is a shame that in the recent push for transparency in government, 20 states managed to fail receiving an F rating. I honestly expected Florida to be one of those states, however we managed a D, which is by no means good. The highest ranked state was Louisiana, which is probably due to the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina, and all of the funding that had to go into the state for recovery efforts. The previous two studies conducted in 1999 and 2006 had Louisiana in 44th place. That’s a great turnaround.
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